Nov. 11 issue: 2023 Scrap Tire Report; a molded goods special report; tire circularity

The Nov. 11 edition of Rubber News features a special report on molded goods. The special section covers happenings across several companies in the molded goods industry, including facility expansions and game-changing products and technology.

Featured stories in the special section include:

• ProMed Molded Products expanded its clean room in Plymouth, Minn., and plans to break ground on a new facility in San Jose, Costa Rica, before the end of the year.
• Freudenberg Sealing Technologies is continuing advanced development of two new in-wheel motor seal designs.
• Trelleborg Sealing Solutions is optimizing railcar manway sealing solutions with the debut of its new Tran-Secure manway nozzle gasket.
• Vitricycle L.L.C. is turning old mattresses into something more by using new technology to reuse and repurpose mattress foam into polymer pellets, which can be used in a wide variety of molded products.

The U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association sees "cautious optimism" in its 2023 Scrap Tire Report. The biennial report demonstrated some positive, some negative and a few ambiguous trends on several fronts for the scrap tire market.

Premier Industrial Hose Manufacturing Ltd. succeeds in the custom niche hose sector with is made-to-order products. "We were born to do whatever the others don't, or don't like to do. Odd sizes, odd hoses," Vice President Marco Giusti said.

Michelin is making its mark on the "beyond tires" space, anticipating the sector will make as much as 20-30 percent of its sales by 2030. And the work Michelin's non-tire businesses do in the aviation industry is proof.

Superior Tire & Rubber Corp. celebrated its 60th anniversary in September during what is perhaps the most successful period during the company's history.

The U.S. Department of Commerce finalized import duties on truck and bus tires from Thailand at rates measurably higher than the preliminary rates disclosed earlier in the year.

Bridgestone EMEA; Fatima, Portugal-based Grupo BB&G; and Milan-based Versalis have established a partnership for creating a closed-loop ecosystem for recycling ELTs.

Liberty Tire Recycling and Walmart have been collaborating for tire circularity. Liberty collects used tires from Walmart and Sam's Club Service Centers to recycle and repurpose the rubber, and Walmart has been selling in its stores many of the repurposed products.

Lilly Ledbetter, whose landmark pay discrimination case against Goodyear reached the Supreme Court and ultimately led to the Fair Pay Act of 2009, died at the age of 86.

Ansell Ltd. has engaged an "international search firm" to aid in the hiring of a new chief financial officer, as the company's current CFO, Zubair Javeed, plans to resign.

RK Rubber Co., a 17-person Milwaukee firm, remains unique in a consolidated belting arena, as few belting companies operate in the value-added space it occupies.

Amidst continuing economic headwinds, Wacker Chemie A.G. saw group sales drop about 6 percent year-over-year, driven by lower demand for solar-grade polysilicon.

Trinnie Cortez, executive operations specialist with Caterpillar Safety Services, kicked off the recent Environmental Health and Safety Summit with a presentation on occupational safety.

Bonnie Stuck has been in the tire and rubber industry for nearly five decades. She's now transitioning into her role of president emeritus at Akron Rubber Development Laboratory Inc.

A panel of women in leadership speak on the importance of advocating for oneself and others in the rubber industry.

This week's Technical Notebook features Nouryon Polymer Specialties' Gina Butuc, Kees van Leerdam and Brenda Rossenaar, as well as the University of Twente's Auke Talma and Anke Blume, and their look at the use of advanced microscopy to elucidate the structure and mechanism of crosslinking rubber.